Marions Piazza

This move has a small upside, he's a vet with two cups and can fill in a bottom 6 role, and there is no real downside at all. If Garth from HBuzz likes the move, then it must have been the right thing to do! "the Sabres have added a hammer to protect their skilled guys..." says Garth

Low Risk/Low Reward, nothing else to see here

We don't need PP points? I get that we were the best in the league last year, but why not get even better on the PP? I am curious to know how many 1 goal OT/SO games we lost last year that could've been wins with more PP goals, you can never have enough of those.

I'm going to have to disagree with you there, the 98 Sabres went to the conference finals and lost to the Caps. 99 Sabres "lost" to the Stars, however, from 96-01 we were in the playoffs, I would argue that team was as good as the Drury-Briere team, of course one team was all defense and historic goaltending while the other was explosive offense with very good goaltending. There have been several great era's, I wasn't alive for the French Connection, but I started watching when Mogilny came in, LaFontaine, Hawerchuk, Andreychuk, that was an awesome era as well. He's shown nothing yet on the ice, I think a lot of fans got all excited when they saw how he put on extra muscle and figured he'd take the next step, which he probably will, just not this year. Getting hurt right at the start of pre-season didn't help either

other than fresh goat cheese in Qatar (hey, i was there and figured what the heck, didn't get sick either) a good aged Parmesan slice with some fig spread and toasted macadamia nut. best appetizer ever

Yeah, people do change, but we can't just pretend our past didn't happen. I did things 20 years ago i shouldn't have, under-age drinking for instance. I'm not going to tell my kids they can't drink until they are 21, because that would make me a hypocrite, I will tell my kids to be responsible as best they can and if they have been drinking that they can call me anytime and i will take care of them, no questions asked.

Fair enough, if he has owned up to all his transgressions, then good for him, I still see hypocrisy, but that's just me.

I just love the hypocrisy of Jim Kelly, trying to take the "moral high ground" and finishing his pressers with "God bless" Once upon a time I worked at the Tony Rome's in West Seneca (Now Mooney's) during the year that the Jim Kelly show was hosted in the sports bar. Pretty much every week a different young lady would head out into his limo with him including one of the waitresses i worked with, I am sure it was just for auto-graphs and Polaroid selfies!

With E-Rod and Nylander hurt, and none of Bailey-Baptiste-Smith-Fasching impressing in the pre-season, do the Sabres consider calling Gionta and maybe giving him a 1 year deal? (I am not condoning or against the idea, just asking the question since the Sabres seem to be in a bind on the 3rd line) I was really hoping that one of the above 'kids' would have been a standout, but no one has impressed that much, there's still time though I suppose. IMO the spot is E-Rod's, however, how bad is his wrist/hand, will he miss much time? There hasn't been any updates.

I was just discussing this topic with my friend actually, glad you brought it up. I think you hit the nail on the head with Z, we saw what he could do under Nolan during the tank year and know what he's capable of in the right situation. I believe he will take advantage of being on a line with RoR and KO. 35-45 pts for him is totally possible, RoR and KO working the puck and Z crashing the net popping in rebounds Andreychuk style. I think Antipin will struggle most of October and November but will start to get it together after T-giving and have a good season, not great or break out, but, a good season. That all said, I think we see a big year from McCabe because of Housley. I read an article a while back that said McCabe was borderline in making the junior national team and Housley made the final decision and also made him the captain. I remember watching the game against Canada and seeing McCabe score the first two goals of the game and the second being the game winner. Then went on to win gold, and finally McCabe was named to the Junior tournament all-star team. I think we see McCabe dominate on the 2nd pairing this year and put up 5G-20A.

We can finally see what is in store for Kane amidst all the speculation and discussions.

I'm going out on a limb and i am going to say, Duchene is a bit overrated, not much, but a bit. Not too mention that Duchene and RoR on the same team didn't work out so well personality wise as i believe one or both admitted to. Not saying that they haven't matured since then, but, why take the risk and mortgage our future for a guy that has only eclipsed 60pts twice since 2009 and may not get along with one of the other stars on the team?

Bolded above, I couldn't agree more, if the plan for Nylander is to be in Buffalo, he needs to be put in a position to succeed, he needs top-6 minutes. It would only hurt him if he sees 8 minutes a game on the 4th line. Top-6 minutes in Buffalo or top-3 in Rochester is the only way to go.

6-10 to 8-8, if it's 8-8, there will be a point in like week 14 where the Bills are "In the hunt" the NFL.com graphic will be posted on Twitter and various Bills message boards etc excitement will abound, then when all they have to do is beat the Dolphins in week 17 to make the playoffs, they will lose

IMO that would be a huge mistake, what is better for Nylander? Top line minutes in Rochester or 6-8 mins a game on the 4th line with a defensive minded center and a has been winger? If in fact Nylander is going to be in Buffalo this season, he needs to play top 6. Also, Reinhart centering D-lo and Z? That's setting him up for failure. In your lineup, I would move Nylander into P-ville's slot, then drop P-ville to Reinhart's line and drop Girgensons to the 4th line.

I think the sample size for Bailey and Baptiste is still too small to say. Going by numbers in Rochester alone, i would say that Baptiste is closer. While Bailey did show some flashes of speed and grit during his games in Buffalo, I think he's still a bit raw and needs to play in Rochester for 17-18 and perhaps start the following season there as well. Baptiste will most likely start in Rochester and be one of the first call-ups with Nylander IMO.

I think we see a marked improvement in Nylander with Rochester this year. As mentioned in numerous posts, he looks quite a bit bigger and still has all summer to keep working out. I believe he has a strong fast start in Rochester and gets Buffalo call-ups by Thanksgiving, however, I don't think we will see long stretches of him in blue and gold unless there is a long term injury.

on draft day, Sabres fans across Twitter posted the meme of CM not doing his pull-ups yadda yadda. I believe Sam Bennett didn't do any or did one, can't remember, but that being said, Bennett had some injury issues with his shoulder. I believe he will play two years in college, his freshman year will have some fans saying he's a bust, but, i bet by his sophomore year he's got 15lbs of muscle added and he dominates college. I saw a few posts suggesting his speed and compete along the boards reminds them of McDavid yet he will never be as good as McDavid. Does he even have to be? If Mittelstadt can be better than Reinhart, then we should be dominant very soon. The future is bright!

From what I have read, he is more of a stay at home defensive defenseman, so the fact that he had 28 points last year is fine with me. Term and salary are fine.

hahaha is he becoming the new "Legend of Kiko" in Buffalo? Casey Mittelstadt once looked at an IED and the trigger man blew up?

yikes, that would've been a huge mistake. glad that didn't happen, but, in a way we still got screwed, trading Vanelk; we got Moulson (who i respect as a guy, he hooked me up in Dallas two seasons ago and was super cool) but i am not thrilled we are stuck with him a few more years.

not worried about the pull-ups, Sam Bennett did what, 1 at the combine, i am sure plenty of teams would take him now. Casey will be fine, college maybe two years, get stronger, then hopefully to Buffalo

i bet Vanek is kicking himself that he turned down the supposed offer from LaFontaine of 8 years $8M

I was deployed to Iraq in 2007-2008 but got to spend a week in Qatar. For those that may not know, Qatar is (well was at the time) an extremely 'liberal' and Westernized middle eastern country. They love Westerners and Americans. Visiting the old shop district was incredible, spice markets, the gold district etc. A man that owned a falconry let me handle his most expensive falcon (its apparently a sign of high social standing to own falcons in Qatar) so it was pretty incredible that he let me handle him, that bird was a monster! Walking around the spice market was awesome, all the smells and aromas were just incredible. Unfortunately I couldn't buy any spices to take back with me because I would've had no way to use them. I ate at a traditional Persian restaurant on the gulf not far from the giant Olympic torch they built so they could bid on the games. I was there with my friend and two Marines we met having dinner and then spending time at the hookah lounge with a servant waiting on us hand and foot ensuring we had enough coffee, tea and biscuits. Got to take a tour of some locals homes, absolutely insane, I have never seen such lavish and elegant homes, Ferraris and Lambo's in every driveway, the lesser half only drive BMW's and Mercedes, poor folks. I toured the gold shops and bought my wife a necklace, when we finally reached a deal and shook hands, he rang a bell and a woman came out a moment later with tea and scones to celebrate the deal and I ended up talking to the guy for almost an hour, very cool. Finished the vacation by fishing in the gulf the last day, which was really just sitting on the deck of a yacht eating sushi for a few hours. I'm not sure how it is in Qatar now, but, I had an amazing week there.

There are a lot of assumptions to be made. To make room for PKane, JBott would have to clear out a lot of salary and there's no reason to assume that LV will take any of our 'trash' in the expansion. We still need a defensive upgrade etc. A lot has to happen if there was a trade for 88, just don't see it likely happening.